Don't subpoena supermodel,
urges Liberia's Taylor
THE HAGUE - Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor opposes a bid by
prosecutors to subpoena supermodel Naomi Campbell to
testify over a so-called blood diamond he is said to have given
her, court papers said Monday 31 May.
Evidence the prosecution wanted to submit in this regard was "more
appropriate for a screen-play than a courtroom hearing," his lawyer
Courtenay Griffiths said in a document filed with the Special Court
for Sierra Leone.
"Even
if it were true that Mr Taylor gave Naomi Campbell a
diamond as alleged by the prosecution, no reasonable trier of fact
could make a link between this diamond exchange and the accused's
support for the rebels in Sierra Leone as alleged in the
indictment."
Earlier this month, prosecutors filed an application to call
Campbell to testify on allegations that she was given a rough
diamond by Taylor after a dinner hosted by former South African
president Nelson Mandela in September 1997.
It
also sought permission to call actress Mia Farrow and Campbell's
then agent Carole White -- both of whom it said were willing,
unlike the supermodel, to testify about the alleged late night
gift.
The
prosecution alleges the diamond was among those Taylor had obtained
from Sierra Leone rebels and took to South Africa "to sell ... or
exchange them from weapons".
Taylor, 62, has been on trial in The Hague since January 2008 on 11
counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the
brutal 1991-2001 civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
He is
accused of having fuelled war in Sierra Leone by arming the rebel
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for "blood diamonds"
-- the name given to diamonds mined in rebel-held regions of Africa
and sold to fund warfare.
The
RUF is blamed for the mutilation of thousands of civilians who had
their hands and arms severed in one of the most brutal wars in
modern history, which claimed some 120,000 lives.